Cape Town - The departments of basic education and transport have prioritised road safety education for school pupils.
A Learner Road Safety seminar took place at the Department of Basic Education Conference Centre in Pretoria (DBE Conference Centre) on Tuesday to address issues around ensuring schoolgoing children were safe on the roads.
Apart from the two departments, representatives from the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), Road Safety Education and the Global Road Safety Partnership South Africa were in attendance.
Dr Pieter Venter, CEO of the Global Road Safety Partnership South Africa (GRSPSA)said in his presentation that each year, there were 1.24 million road traffic deaths worldwide, with the most affected group being young adults in the 15-44 age group.
This group, Venter noted, accounted for 59 percent of global road related deaths.
Venter went on to say that out of this number, 92 percent of all road traffic deaths occurred in low and middle income countries.
“Vulnerable road users account for half of all road traffic deaths globally. Pedestrians, cyclists and riders of motorised two-wheelers and their passengers are collectively known as vulnerable road users,” Venter told delegates.
Thandi Moya of the Department of Transport said that high speed, pedestrians, overtaking, turning in front of oncoming traffic and a disregard of red traffic lights by drivers were major contributing factors to road deaths.
“We need to strengthen our policies to deal with the fatalities,” she said. She added that more needed to be done around education around the behaviours and attitudes of road users in getting them to comply with and respect road rules.
Avi Silverman from GRSPSA said highway crossings being made by school children continued to be a concern, and was one of the main causes of road-related deaths.
Silverman said road safety education was a priority at schools. He said speed humps need to be constructed near schools and pedestrian-heavy areas as a means to force drivers to slow down in these areas.
Enforcing speed reduction “could reduce fatalities by 30 percent” he added, stressing that multiple efforts by key stakeholders were needed to make an impact on lowering the high rate of road-related deaths in South Africa.
ANA